Playing With You

by Cheyenne McCray

  “No you don’t.” The crazy look in Deena’s eyes intensified and she pressed the knife tighter to Ricki’s throat. “You’re lying.”

  “Please.” Ricki was having a hard time getting any words out. “I’ll do whatever you want.”

  “I can see it.” Deena glared at Ricki. “You don’t really love me. If I let you go, you’ll do something stupid like go to the police.”

  “No, I won’t.” Ricki held her breath. “I promise.”

  “I want you to know exactly what you pushed away.” Deena leaned her face closer to Ricki’s. “You had your chance at the spa but you rejected me. Now you’re going to pay for that.”

  Ricki’s heart slammed against her ribcage and her entire body shook as she faced the possibility of death. Unless some miracle happened, she was going to die.

  Deena’s face glowed eerily in the firelight that made it through the trees they were hidden in.

  With an evil smile, Deena gestured to the old wooden playhouse with a jerk of her head. “I’ll put your body in there with all of those spiders you told me about and it’s likely you won’t be found for at least a day or two.” She looked around them. “You were right. This place is pretty well hidden.”

  “Did you start the fire?” Ricki’s voice was hoarse as it came out.

  “Of course.” Deena rubbed her thumb over Ricki’s lips. “Poisoned that stupid dog, too.”

  “You poisoned Xena?” Fury filled Ricki and she fought against her restraints. “You bi—”

  Deena covered Ricki’s mouth with her hand and pressed the knife to her throat again. “Don’t say anything you’re going to regret.”

  Ricki began to wonder if someone might find her before Deena killed her, but knew it wasn’t likely. Everyone would be too busy with the fire to pay attention to a bunch of trees at the back of the yard, far enough away from the house that they weren’t in danger of catching fire.

  Any hope of salvation was fading fast. Still, she continued to fight against the tape binding her.

  When Deena moved her hand away, Ricki stared at her. “So you really killed those two women, Celia and Maria.”

  Deena’s eyes widened, clearly startled. “How do you know that?”

  “There’s a manhunt going on for you,” Ricki said with some satisfaction. “Garrett figured out that you and Diane Donatello are one and the same. You lost weight and chopped off and dyed your hair. You probably had collagen injected into your lips and you’re wearing brown contacts, too, right?”

  “That fucking bastard.” Deena’s skin went from pale to red in an instant. “Thanks for the warning. Once I’m through with you, I’ll leave town again.”

  “It won’t do you any good.” Ricki narrowed her gaze at Deena. “They will catch you.”

  “No.” Deena shook her head. “I’ll make sure they don’t find me.”

  “Everyone’s going to be looking for you,” Ricki said. “There’s no place you can hide.”

  “My treasures.” Deena put her hand to her mouth. “Celia. Maria. How will I get them?”

  “How will you get them?” Ricki furrowed her brow, confused. “They’re dead.”

  Deena rocked back on her heels, moving the knife away from Ricki’s throat. “I kept pieces of them in my treasure chest to remember them by.” Deena almost seemed like she was somewhere else entirely. “A lock of Maria’s hair and one of her fingernails is in the music box, and I have an urn with some of Celia’s ashes. I need them.” Deena looked distraught. “I have to get them.”

  “The police are supposed to be at your house by now,” Ricki said as she shifted and worked at the tape binding her ankles and her wrists, which she knew was probably hopeless but she tried anyway. “They’ve probably already found your treasures.”

  The malice in Deena’s eyes as she turned her gaze on Ricki chilled her to the bone. She’d gone too far and Deena was going to kill her now.

  “I guess I’ll have to start collecting new mementos.” No matter what Deena said, Ricki knew she was upset about losing the pieces of the women she’d been obsessed with. Deena looked Ricki over. “Now what should I keep of you?”

  “You don’t need to kill me.” Ricki tried to keep her voice from shaking. “Please.”

  “You rejected me.” Deena looked positively evil in the red glow of the fire. “I told you how much I love you and you rejected me.” She shook her head. “If I can’t have you, Garrett McBride certainly never will.”

  Deena raised the knife and reached for Ricki’s hand. “One of your fingers will do for my keepsake.”

  Chapter 30

  Garrett’s heart felt as though it had been crammed into his throat when he saw the fire.

  He was a good distance away when he saw flames licking the night sky and smoke billowing like ominous clouds, but he knew without a doubt that it was Ricki’s house.

  Not giving a damn if he was caught speeding, he drove like a madman to Ricki’s neighborhood and tore down her street.

  Her home was engulfed in flames. It looked like no part of the house was untouched—all of it was burning.

  Emergency vehicles crowded the street as crews fought to contain the fire and police kept the neighbors away from the scene.

  Garrett parked as close as he could, then jumped out of his truck and ran toward Ricki’s home, panic surging through him.

  Off to the right, Eric McBride was in full gear and was shouting orders. He was one of Garrett’s cousins, a lieutenant for the Prescott Fire Department.

  “Where is she?” Garrett rushed up to Eric. “Did Ricki get out?”

  Eric turned to Garrett and had to raise his voice over the noise. “We don’t know if anyone was home. We searched all that we could of the house before we had to stop.”

  “She was home.” Garrett swallowed down pain rising in his chest. “I talked with her not too long ago.”

  “Her car was in the garage.” Eric gestured to the garage that was in flames, too. The Prius was at the foot of the driveway. “We pushed it out before the fire got to it to make sure the tank wouldn’t explode.”

  Garrett started toward the house, but Eric held him back. “There’s no way you can go in that house, Garrett.” Eric’s face was hard. “If anyone was in there, they couldn’t have survived.”

  An ache built up behind Garrett’s eyes. He dragged his hand down his face, unable to believe that Ricki could be inside the inferno. That she could be…dead. An overwhelming sense of fear and loss nearly consumed him. But a part of him refused to believe that she was in that house. No, she couldn’t be dead. She couldn’t.

  “We did find a dog.” Eric nodded toward a lump on the sidewalk, covered with a blanket. Only the dog’s head was exposed.

  “Xena.” Garrett started toward the retriever. “Is she alive?”

  “She’s unconscious.” Eric strode beside Garrett. “We found her lying in the backyard. She woke up and appeared disoriented, but not like she came from inside the house and suffering from smoke inhalation. It’s more like she was drugged.”

  Garrett reached Xena and bent down beside her. Xena opened her eyes, saw Garrett, and started to push herself up.

  “Shhh.” Garrett worked to calm Xena even though he wasn’t feeling one damned bit calm himself.

  The dog struggled and then surged to her feet. She bared her teeth and growled before she took a step forward. She wavered and then started toward the house.

  “No, girl.” Garrett was afraid Xena was going to try to get into the burning house to find Ricki.

  Garrett reached for Xena’s collar but she took him by surprise and bolted toward the house. She started barking wildly as he ran after her. Two firemen tried to stop Garrett but he pushed his way into the yard as he followed Xena who rounded the house and ran into the backyard.

  The blistering heat of the fire singed Garrett’s skin as he went past the house while following the dog. “Xena!” he called out. “Come here!” But the roar of the fire drowned out his voice.
<
br />   When he reached the backyard, he saw Xena bolting away from the fire, heading for the trees at the back of Ricki’s property. Garrett tore after her.

  * * * * *

  Ricki screamed, her eyes wide with fear as Deena grabbed one of her pinky fingers and raised the knife to chop it off.

  With everything she had, Ricki fought and screamed, trying to jerk her hands away from Deena’s grasp.

  “Shut up.” Deena jerked her arm back and elbowed Ricki in the nose. “And be still.”

  Ricki cried out from the burst of pain that shot through her nose and blood immediately began flowing over her lips. She didn’t stop screaming or struggling.

  Deena raised the knife as she whipped around, her eyes narrowed. “I’ll just take your finger after I kill you.”

  She raised the knife and started to bring it down on Ricki’s throat.

  Heart thundering, Ricki bent her knees and kicked up hard, hitting Deena in her arm, hard enough that it knocked the knife from her grip.

  Deena shrieked and grabbed for the knife. It was close enough that she could reach it and she grasped the handle. Ricki tried to roll away but Deena grabbed Ricki’s braid and jerked her head back, exposing her throat.

  Ricki kicked and thrashed, fighting for her life, but Deena raised the knife and started to bring the blade down. Even as certain death was coming toward her, Ricki couldn’t believe she was about to die.

  In a blur, something huge and furry flung itself at Deena, bowling her over.

  Xena.

  Deena rolled back but regained her balance. She lunged for Xena and swiped at her with the knife.

  The retriever clamped her jaws over the wrist of Deena’s knife hand. Xena snarled and shook Deena’s wrist as if she were trying to kill a small animal.

  Deena screamed and she dropped the knife. As Xena shook Deena’s wrist, the woman picked up the knife with her free hand and swung it at the retriever’s side.

  “No!” Ricki kicked out at Deena, trying to hit her arm, but missed.

  The knife sank into Xena’s side. The dog yelped and let go of Deena’s wrist.

  Xena stumbled and fell.

  “You bitch!” Ricki screamed as Deena jerked the knife from Xena’s side.

  The retriever snarled and tried to get up.

  Ricki started to roll away from Deena but knew she was too late as Deena raised the knife and plunged it toward Ricki.

  Another scream lodged in Ricki’s throat.

  A man jammed his boot on Deena’s arm, knocking the knife away.

  The crack of bone was loud and Deena shrieked in pain and fell back.

  In the next moment, Garrett was standing over Deena, a furious expression on his face. Deena tried to get up but Garrett stepped on her good arm, pinning her to the ground. Despite the fact she had a broken arm, Deena fought like a crazy woman, trying to get up and get away from Garrett.

  “Duct tape is behind you,” Ricki shouted even as she spotted the tape while trying to inch her way over to Xena, tears filling her eyes.

  Garrett straddled Deena, pinning her down with one leg on her good arm and his weight on her body.

  Deena still fought him but he was able to reach for the tape with one hand while holding her down. The woman tried to bite his thigh through his jeans. He put a strip of tape over her mouth.

  She kept trying to free her arm and hit him, so he had no choice but to bind her wrists together even though her arm was broken. He managed to bind them in front of her. Even as tears flowed down her face from the pain, she kept trying to kick free.

  It was like Deena was on drugs and couldn’t feel as much pain as she should as she fought him and fought him. After her wrists were secured, he turned and bound her ankles together.

  Ricki didn’t have time to feel any relief when Deena was subdued. The bitch had stabbed Xena.

  “We’ve got to get Xena to a vet.” Tears rolled down Ricki’s cheeks as she saw the labored breathing of her dog. “Now!”

  “Hold on, honey.” Garrett was already on his phone, telling the dispatcher where they were. The police were, of course, simply on the other side of the house from where Ricki, Garrett, Xena, and Deena were.

  Garrett pulled out a pocketknife and cut the tape at Ricki’s wrists and ankles. The second she was free, she scrambled to Xena’s side.

  Ricki sobbed as she touched Xena’s golden hair that was now black and sticky with blood. “She’s bleeding, badly.”

  Garrett shrugged off his shirt and handed it to Ricki. She immediately did her best to stop the blood flow, pressing the shirt to the wound.

  “I’m calling Doc Tanner, our family vet,” Garrett said even as police officers rounded the copse of trees.

  Garrett apparently had the vet’s home phone number in his contacts because he was speaking to the vet almost immediately. “He’s going to meet us at his clinic,” Garrett said as he stuffed the cell phone into the holster on his belt and he knelt beside Ricki and Xena.

  He wrapped his arm around Ricki’s shoulders. “She’s going to be all right, honey.” He kissed the top of Ricki’s head. “Thank God you’re all right.” He squeezed her tighter. “Thank God.”

  She looked up at him, her face wet with tears. “I’m so glad you’re all right, too.” She looked back at the retriever. “But Xena…”

  Paramedics rushed in behind the officers. Ricki refused their attention, telling them to take care of Xena.

  John McBride, Garrett’s stepbrother, had been one of the first officers to arrive and Garrett was giving him the details of what had happened.

  Soon the paramedics had Xena on a stretcher, hurrying her to the front of the house. Ricki left with them, staying close to the golden retriever’s side. Garrett caught up to them not a minute later.

  The stench of smoke was strong and Ricki was vaguely aware that the house fire was just about out and she had a fleeting thought that everything she owned was gone.

  But none of that mattered. What was important was for Xena to be all right. No one else had been injured and Ricki was happy to be alive, but right now that wasn’t her focus.

  Being that it was a small town and Garrett was a McBride, as was Eric, who was a fire lieutenant, Xena was allowed to be loaded into an ambulance for the short ride to the vet’s clinic. Ricki climbed into the ambulance to be with Xena, her heart continuing to pound, her head throbbing with pain. Before the ambulance doors were shut, Garrett shouted that he’d be following in his truck.

  Even as a paramedic attended to Xena, another one started examining Ricki. She wanted to push the paramedic away, but she was too exhausted, too overwhelmed, too fearful.

  Doc Tanner’s clinic wasn’t very far and the entrance was open, lights on, the vet and an assistant waiting at the door. The paramedics carried Xena in on a stretcher and directly toward surgery.

  Ricki insisted she was all right, but the paramedics stayed to check her over. She had a moderate concussion and a huge bruise on the back of her head, as well as scrapes and bruises from being dragged from the house by Deena, but that was about it.

  Someone found scrubs for her to wear, since all she’d had was the robe, but she didn’t remember who.

  Garrett sat by Ricki in the waiting room while she was being examined. Soon it was just the two of them waiting and praying for Xena to pull through.

  He held her close, his arm around her shoulders and squeezing her to him. “All I can think is how grateful I am that you’re all right.”

  She met his gaze. “I love you, Garrett.”

  “I love you.” He kissed her and drew back. “I can’t imagine ever loving anyone more than I do you.”

  Chapter 31

  Ricki felt a tightness in her chest and a sinking feeling in her belly as she picked her way through the charred remains of her home. The fire marshal had determined that it was safe enough for Ricki to return to look over everything and see if there was anything salvageable. So far she’d found nothing. She was fortunate that the fir
efighters had saved her car—it was all she had left.

  The day was balmy and would have been beautiful if it wasn’t for the house, or what remained of it. The air was thick with the harsh stench that pervaded everything even after the smoke was gone. Most of the house lay in complete ruins with very little standing.

  The harsh reality was setting in. Everything she’d owned or treasured had been destroyed in the fire and she’d been left with nothing. And Xena…

  She swallowed hard and thought about the woman Deena had kidnapped and stuffed in the trunk of the woman’s car. She was traumatized but she’d be all right. At least Deena hadn’t killed yet another person.

  “I heard from a contact at the District Attorney’s office this morning.” Garrett interrupted her thoughts as he moved beside her. “Not sure how this will pan out, but Diane Donatello will likely be sent to prison for life or face the death penalty for the murders of those two women in Tucson. She has the punishment coming to her,” Garrett added. “She could plead insanity but that rarely works.” He settled his hand on Ricki’s upper arm. “You’re safe now.”

  Ricki nodded. She still couldn’t get used to the idea that Deena was really a murderer named Diane Donatello. “I’m glad she’ll be put away and that she can never hurt anyone else.” Ricki heard the hardness in her own voice. Not only had the woman tried to murder Ricki, but Xena might not make it.

  “All we can do now is pray that Xena will pull through,” Garrett said, echoing her thoughts.

  Ricki swallowed down the lump in her throat at the thought that Xena could still die. “The stab wound is serious. Doc Tanner only gives her a fifty-fifty chance.”

  “She’s a special dog,” Garrett said and Ricki looked up at him to see his face darken with anger. “If it wasn’t for Xena, Diane might have killed you.”

  “Deena probably would have killed me.” She swallowed hard. “You and Xena both saved my life.”

  “I couldn’t have handled anything happening to you.” Garrett pulled her into his arms and squeezed her tightly. “I couldn’t bear losing you.”